Worst-hit hospitals moving patients

A heavily flooded hospital in Ayutthaya has halted services after evacuating all inpatients, including some who were airlifted to the capital.

Ten patients have died at the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital over the past three days, but hospital director Dr Weerapon Thirapanjarern insisted their deaths had nothing to with the flooding. 

“They were terminal-stage patients. The latest death resulted from a blood infection,” he explained. 

However, Weerapon said they had decided to shut down temporarily because floods had cut its access to public services. 

The transfer of inpatients from Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital was complicated. Medical staff had to carry people above flood water to ambulances, which took them to the Woraburi Hotel. A helicopter from Bangkok picked up the more serious from a landing pad marked out near the hospital and carried them to the Lerdsin Hospital.

Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri said the hospital transferred 78 patients to other medical facilities. 

Meanwhile, flooding in Ayutthaya continues to worsen. 

Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr Paijit Warachit said the ministry had instructed its 20 hospitals to keep a close eye on flood levels as the risk grows. 

“All hospitals in flood risk areas should shut down medical services on the first floor of their buildings and move equipment up to the safety of higher floors,” he said.

Witthaya said mobile medical units had been set up at a temporary shelter at a provincial city hall. Medical teams and psychiatrists were instructed to stand by around the clock in case they were needed to provide emergency treatment.

In Nakhon Sawan, medical staff at the Sawan Pracharak Hospital rushed to evacuate severely ill patients to two nearby hospitals after a massive amount of water from the Chao Phraya River destroyed sandbag barriers and flowed into the town.

Flood water had not yet entered the hospital, but medical staff insisted the evacuations were necessary. 

The Public Health Ministry reported that 50 patients needing respiratory devices were sent to Jiraprawat Military Camp Hospital and the Mother and Children Hospital, located five kilometres from Sawan Pracharak hospital.

“We expected the floodwaters would rise up to the first floor of the hospital building,” Nakhon Sawan provincial public health office chief, Dr Burares Sriprathak, said. 

Over 650 patients were admitted to the Sawan Pracharak hospital, including some who were critically ill. 

Burares said the hospital had decided to close the outpatient department but the inpatient unit remained open. 

The Public Health Ministry has set up a mobile medical unit to provide treatment for flood-affected people at Phaholyothin intersection. The Jiraprawat Military Camp hospital and Mother and Children hospital were also available for those requiring medical care

At Angthong, patients with serious conditions were being sent to other hospitals. “We are sending patients from our intensive care units elsewhere because they rely on oxygen tanks. Our stocks will last for just one week,” the hospital’s director Dr Narong Apikulwanich said. 

He said the hospital, though still safe for the moment, faced an imminent risk given it was located right by the Chao Phraya, which has burst its banks in several provinces. 

Narong pointed out that areas around the hospital were already flooded. A helicopter has surveyed the locality for a likely landing spot where it could pick up patients. 

“We have to be fully prepared,” he said. 

Narong said staff had already moved medical equipment and all items to higher spots to keep them away from water, if it flows in.